Fish and Chips with Homemade Tartar - Recipe #43 Stirring the Pot

There are 88 recipes in Stirring the Pot and I am almost halfway through! Next week will mark the halfway point for me and I will be sharing my top ten Stirring the Pot favorites. Will Tyler's Fish and Chips with Homemade Tartar make this list? Not this time around, but maybe with some tweaking.

Fish and Chips with Homemade Tartar - adapted from Stirring the Pot by Tyler Florence
4 large russet potatoes, scrubbed and rinsed
Vegetable oil, for deep- frying
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus about 1 cup for dredging
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 egg yolks
1-1/2 cups club soda
1 pound halibut fillets, cut into strips or pieces
Fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley leaves, for garnish
2 lemons, halved for serving
1 recipe Homemade Tartar Sauce (listed below)

Preheat oven to 350F. Prick potatoes all over with a fork. Place potatoes on a baking tray and bake for 30-45 minutes, until knife-tender. If you like, this can be done the night before and potatoes can be refrigerated until ready to fry. Cut each potato into 6 or 8 wedges, depending on the size. Pour about 4 inches oil into a large heavy pot and heat to 375F. Fry half of the potato wedges at a time for 4-5 minutes, until crispy and brown. Drain on paper towels and season with salt. Set aside and keep warm.

In a large bowl, combine the 2 cups flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and 1-1/2 teaspoons salt. Make a well in the center and add egg yolk. Gradually whisk in club soda, working your way from the center to form a smooth batter.

Season about 1 cup floru with salt and pepper. Dredge the fish fillets in seasoned flour, coating both sides, then dip in batter. Fry a few pieces at a time in 375F oil for 4-5 minutes, until crispy and golden brown. Drain on paper towels and season with salt.

When fish is done, place parsley leaves in hot oil. Fry leaves for 15 seconds, until just crispy and slightly translucent. Remove from oil with slotted spoon, drain on paper towels. Serve fish with lemon halves, crispy fried parsley leaves, and Homemade Tartar Sauce.

Homemade Tartar Sauce
In a small-medium sized bowl combine 1/2 cup store-bought mayo; 1/2 cup sour cream; 2 tablespoons caper, chopped; 1/4 cup chopped cornichons; 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley; 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh tarragon; and 1/2 lemon, juice only. Set in refrigerator for 10-15 minutes b efore serving to let the flavors come together.
Notes/Results: Tyler hits it out of the park with this recipe for batter. You will want to coat everything in this batter, I promise! In fact, you will probably start looking around for all kinds of things to fry so that you can use up this batter. It really is that good. The homemade tartar sauce is also delicious and worth making.

The problem was with the potatoes. Tyler's recipe says to scrub and rinse them, prick them with a fork, and then place them on a baking sheet and bake. Well, this resulted in a very hard shell on the outside of my potatoes. Normally, I would prick my potatoes, give them an olive oil or butter coating, sprinkle with some kosher salt, and wrap them in foil to be baked. This method always yields good results for me. In hindsight, I wished I would have went along with my method of baking these potatoes, but I figured that I would follow Tyler's directions. Mistake!! My chips, or fries, were hard no matter how thin I cut them or how long I fried them. With the potatoes being so hard, they didn't really have a chance. Next time, I will use my method for baking potatoes.

I also wanted to note that you will probably find yourself using more than 1 and 1/2 cups club soda to make a smooth batter. Club soda has so much carbonation in it, it is hard to get an exact measurement. Make sure you have extra if you want to try this recipe.

Also, when you add the parsley to the frying oil.....stand back!! In fact, stand way back. It will pop all over the place!

All in all, this is a great recipe and has great potential to be very delicious! I will make it again, using my method for baking potatoes!

I am submitting this recipe to Tyler Florence Fridays. Stop on by there this weekend to see what everyone else cooked up!!